INTRINSIC: Using LEAPS to Retire Early

I have been a stock investor since mid 1990's with reasonable success. My annualized return is about 31% over the past 5 years, which beats any index by a wide margin. Picking stocks and beating the market, to me, has been more than just investment. It is a game that I love to win.My bookshelves are filled with investment books, including some that I never finished after reading just a few chapters. But when I came across this book, I could not stop reading it. I finished it over one weekend. I could only wish that I had discovered the LEAP strategy introduced in this book sooner.I usually stayed away from any options, except for covered calls, covered puts, and collar. I always considered any naked options simply as speculative and even perhaps stupid gambles. However this book completely changed my view towards LEAP. It convinced me that DITM LEAP is indeed a legit and efficient investment mechanism.The book is written for all levels of readers. If you are new to options, it provides a very easy to read tutorial. If you are already experienced with options fundamental, you can jump to the chapters covering the DITM LEAP strategy and still find the content very intriguing.It's also written for different styles of readers. If you are a math or number person like me, you will find this book very logical. If you are less mathematical but more intuitive, you will still find those examples easy to follow.Regardless whether you consider yourself a growth or value investor, the DITM LEAP strategy simply makes sense. If you prefer ETF, the DIMP LEAP strategy introduced by this book works as well, perhaps even works better.As an experienced investor, my stock selection is based on the fundamental while my timing is often contrarian. I often load up during a market crash and I never chase the high flyers. I often say that I do not care if I miss many hot stocks. There are so many of them. I only need the one that I buy is a great one. If you have a similar style in investing, you will find the DITM LEAP strategy described in this book the most valuable. The strategy is not about helping you with more speculative success. Instead it is more about rewarding you with higher annualized return with the same stock that you pick based on its long term fundamental. This is about making your good investment better. This is not about trading speculative options.In short, I highly recommend this book and encourage any serious stock investors to read it. The DITM LEAP strategy articulated in this book is both insightful and practical. It simply makes sense!

The book describes his strategy, about how to leverage up (relatively safely) when going long (or short) on certain stocks, using options. Generally speaking it’s sensible advice to newbies and carries useful information about options trading and the options market. I learned things, and got to absorb some of his experience, and it’s easily worth the reading time if you just got the idea of long term options trading.There are some statements or lack of nuance in the book that I’d like to quibble with. One example: The author suggested the act of being patient and waiting for an investment to go positive. Patience is good, but the strategy of buying a stock and waiting for, in my words, volatility to take it positive doesn’t really work. The author also described a case where he should have sold when ahead instead of waiting for more gains. The problem is, if you keep buying securities and sell, for example, when they go 2% higher, then eventually you’ll get one that never goes higher.You might even construct an argument that the author doesn’t really offer a good strategy, because in a prolonged downturn your options would get wiped out. Imagine starting this strategy in 1920. Everything is fine, until 1932, when your last options purchased before the crash are worthless. Nowadays, the Fed might have a more inflationary response. So running this strategy is partly a bet on Fed policy.So maybe he was picking up hundred dollar bills in front of a steamroller. I don’t remember an analysis of such risks.That doesn’t diminish the usefulness of the book. You’re responsible for making sure you have a good balance between LEAPS and other securities. The book makes no secret of the fact that for this book to be useful, you do have to pick the right stocks. I can tell you that reading this book altered my investment strategy a bit and it paid for its time to read. This is a review from somebody who was new to options, who had some opinions about certain stocks, who wanted to put a small chunk of his portfolio in long term options.Edit 05/27/2022: In response to the other reviewer's comment, "I sincerely hope no one bought this book in late 2021 and followed entered any LEAPS plays on tech companies.": I did! But they were puts.

I was a stock broker and always invested in the market having an insiders knowage of how , why and when pay off. My main trading strategy is IBD and Wyckoff which i leared in college and used when i was a broker. For years most years I had good returns using this method which i recommend to all traders. For a while i was trading options selling covered calls and puts which i still do to this day I was buying short term calls and puts on stocks which did not move before the experation date on the options so i sell the option buy another with a farther out experation date and so on. I start buying call on Put Leaps and wow what a difference it made. The preimuim paid for them was more than worth it. After discovering Leaps I also found that they are cheaper than owning shares of the stock and the returns are a lot better sometimes 2x better and more . I buy Leaps mostly on the leading stocks which and use I use leaps on the SPX, QQQs and other indexes as a Hedge to safe gaurd my portfolio which is mostly leaps a few stocks and covered options.This book has helped me a lot, I implemented a few of his strategies and am doing better. There is a lot of great information in this book insight ways to look at things in a way you may have missed. The DITM Method is a great strategy to use I use it and the math really helps great returns. before I was picking the right stock to buy leaps on just not buying the best strike sometimes so I would bracket and buy several different strikes it worked but i was realizing I could do better. I stated buying Leaps in 2015 and wish this book would have been published in 2014. I would pay hundreds for the information in this book. I have paid hundreds for semianers the information was not as valuable.